A new Australian dream: Why Melbourne and Sydney need to be more like New York

With Melbourne and Sydney expected to grow to the size of New York City by 2050, urbanists have warned Australia’s rapidly-growing capital cities face catastrophic failure unless they densify and start looking a lot more like the Big Apple.

To see how urban renewal can help accommodate Australia’s soaring population, more than 40 delegates from Australia’s property industry travelled to New York for a week-long study tour as a boom of billion-dollar developments transform Manhattan’s skyline.

“Part of the reason for coming over here is to peer into the future and look at how these cities handle growth and how they transform big chunks of their city and mix private profit and public benefit,” Ken Morrison, chief executive of the Property Council of Australia told Domain in New York.

Melbourne and Sydney need to become more like New York with higher density living to survive and thrive. Photo: iStock

In May, the council published a paper written by renowned urbanist Greg Clark. The paper found Australia’s five largest cities – Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide – were failing by pursuing a low-density, low-amenity model with poor infrastructure, affordability and connectivity.

Mr Clark said if the current model – where people are forced to the city fringes for entry level affordable housing – was to be repeated for a decade more “it would be an unforgivable failure”.

“We need to be able to persuade people that the quarter-acre block is not only way to enjoy suburban life.”Greg Clark

His research noted: “We need to be able to persuade people that the quarter-acre block is not only way to enjoy suburban life.”

Times Square New York. Photo: iStock

Mr Morrison said he found government and private business in New York working together to create affordable housing and encourage development – with a mature built-for-rent market – whereas the Australian government had more of an “oppositional” attitude toward large-scale developments and renewal.

In New York, billion-dollar projects are transforming old industrial areas and rail yards into new business and retail hubs and neighbourhoods. One of these sites is Hudson Yards, currently the largest real estate development in America worth a staggering $20 billion [$27.5 billion].

Consisting of 16 skyscrapers built above rail yards on Manhattan’s west side, the new neighbourhood will include public parks, art installations, an exhibition centre, retail, restaurants with a mixture of affordable housing.

Manhattan bridge in New York. Photo: iStock

“Place-making is really taking something and creating something special there so people see it as a place,” Mr Morrison said.

“One of the most celebrated examples in Australia recently is Barangaroo; taking an empty wharf and making a really amazing place that is just buzzing at the moment.

“All these different mixes of things to create a place. The Australian property industry focused on that but seeing it on another level in New York is incredible.”

Mr Morrison said the Australian dream was changing and more Australians would live in highly developed and high-amenity clusters.

“If we look to the future in Sydney or Melbourne or Perth, they can’t do the next 20 years like the last 20 years.

“In Australian cities, it will be horses for courses. There will be some people who want to still continue to live in a quarter-acre block of land. That’s fine and there will still be plenty of that, but increasingly a lot of Australians will want to buy into a new lifestyle and a new Aussie dream.”